Welcome to the experimental, Monthly Press Release post! I don’t promise that all submitted press releases will be posted on these, but we’ll see how this will go. For now, we’ll be playing around with assorted press releases, including book releases. All of this is subject to change, based both on audience response and amount of submissions.

The following releases are either in part or in full, as they were submitted to the WCBN. Edits were made for structure, length, or presentation, but do not distill or change the content in a significant, nor misrepresenting way. The following does not necessarily reflect the opinion, views, preferences, nor stances of the WCBN, crew, nor its affiliates.

WCBN Notices

December 1, 2013

The Webcast Beacon Network website will be going down sometime this week, as it moves to a new server. Please follow updates on our twitter account @WebcastBeacon. The website’s archive a bit heavy for our current host, The Hiveworks, so we’ll be venturing out for our own hosting for the first time in six years. We greatly appreciate The Hiveworks for saving us and hosting us for as long as they did!

Please note that all programming and article posts are suspended until the new site is up and running.

Creatives’ Releases

“CAPITALISM MUST DIE! – A Basic Introduction to Capitalism: What It Is, Why It Sucks, and How to Crush It”

Capitalism Must Die! is 240-full-color pages of comics and text. It is being offered initially as an ebook, and is due in print at the end of the year (published by Idées Nouvelles, Idées Prolétariennes).

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Stephanie McMillan, winner of the 2012 RFK Journalism Award, is the creator of the comics “Minimum Security,” “Code Green,” and six previous books (including two graphic novels plus the comics journalism work “The Beginning of the American Fall,” Seven Stories Press 2012). Her cartoons have appeared in hundreds of publications, including the Los Angeles Times, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Yahoo news, Daily Beast, Yes! magazine, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and The Occupied Wall Street Journal.
Three years in the making, she distills 30 years of organizing experience into Capitalism Must Die! Part 1 explains the economic mechanisms of capitalism, and why the growth imperative is built into it. Part 2 explains the kind of organizations we need to build if we are to overcome capitalism. Throughout, cartoons make the points even more clear (and amusing).

McMillan hopes that readers will use the book as an organizing tool. Toward this end, she offers it with a Creative Commons license, and at a price that readers choose.

“Oppression, ecocide, inequality, and exploitation can’t be voted away or escaped,” says McMillan. “We can’t get rid of them through consumer or lifestyle choices. If you really want to end the atrocities, you need to join the worldwide fight against capitalism!”

The Adventures of Shakespeare & Watson Detectives of Mysterypairs William Shakespeare and Dr. John Watson as time traveling detectives who are trapped in the present after an accident with their time cane. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson have traveled to William Shakespeare’s era to solve “The Riddle of a Thousand Faces,” but Professor Moriarty sprang a clever ruse, breaking Sherlock’s “time cane,” causing a “temporal storm” that sends Sherlock and Moriarty to times unknown, and Shakespeare and Watson to the present. Together, the unorthodox partners have formed the premier detective agency in all of north Brooklyn to fight crime while trying to figure out a way to get back to their own eras.

Press Releases

INNOVATION, is a community project that calls for up-and-coming artists to contribute 4-6 page shorts to keep a world living and breathing. The project is presented in a traditional comics format with a new story releasing each week throughout November.

Indie writer Wes Locher has launched his new ongoing sci-fi comic series, Innovation. The free comic follows the questionable ethics of the R.D.S.L. Corporation as they innovate your world…whether you want them to or not.

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The first issue will bring new short stories weekly to the website www.innovationcomic.com for the entire month of November. The artistic lineup for the inaugural issue includes Ken Perry, Mike Hatfield, Damon Threet and Stan Chou.

“Things have changed in the digital landscape,” said Locher. “There are new tools for storytellers and sometimes you have to get…shall we say…innovative.”

Storylines set up over the course of November will continue on in future issues and Locher is seeking artists to contribute 4-6 page black and white stories to keep the series going. He encourages both established and up-and-coming artists to send links to their portfolios for consideration.

“I’ve always wanted to write an ongoing series,” said Locher. “Contributing artists will keep the story going, have a lot of fun, and it’s a great promotional opportunity for everyone involved.”

The first issue of Innovation debuted at the New York Comic Con as a free giveaway and now Locher is unleashing his tale online.

Locher is the writer of the crime-fiction miniseries Chambers for Arcana Studio and the recently-Kickstarted sci-fi/comedy comic, Unit 44.

Artists interested in getting involved can visit the website for more information.

From the popular Los Angeles comic strip artist Lalo Alcaraz (La Cucaracha) to Malaysian editorial cartoonist Zunar (who has faced such heavy repression that the Cartoonists Rights Network International honored him with the Courage in Editorial Cartooning award), artists from around the world have voiced support for Haitian garment workers struggling for a higher minimum wage.

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Four Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonists—Clay Bennett (Chatanooga Times Free Press), Ann Telnaes (Washington Post), Joel Pett (Lexington Herald-Leader), and Mark Fiore (self-syndicated)—are among those who have taken a stand.

Haitian garment workers receive the industry’s lowest wages in the hemisphere: 200 gourdes, or less than $5 per day. Factories have been refusing to comply with even the totally inadequate minimum wage adjustment to 300 gourdes, which was made into law in 2009.

The State Salary Council of Haiti is set to recommend a new minimum wage at the end of November. The autonomous workers organization Batay Ouvriye (Workers Fight) is mobilizing to demand 500 gourdes ($11.50) per day—the minimum required for a family to survive.

The statement was initiated by the Rapid Response Network (a project of One Struggle), which aims to offer prompt solidarity to the struggles of workers against exploitation and repression, and alerts groups and individuals of situations that could benefit from immediate attention.

The Rapid Response Network publicizes and builds support for workers fighting exploitation, under their guidance and in their interests. Our goal is to build a worldwide network able to organize effective solidarity and support for autonomous workers’ struggles.